Veteran Advertising Executive to Lead Media Execution and Brand Strategy Initiatives for Clients From Across the Entertainment, Travel, Retail, CPG & Healthcare Sectors

NEW YORK, NY (April 24, 2017) — Media Storm, the award-winning media planning and buying agency, today announced that Steve Piluso has joined as Executive Director and Head of Media and Integration, a new role that will oversee the entire agency’s media efforts, leveraging new campaign approaches and branding strategies. He will also be responsible for integration of Media Storm’s exclusive data-driven tools—including JubaPlus, the agency’s micro-segmenting solution, and Ninety9X, its transparent programmatic platform—to deliver highly targeted solutions for clients. Piluso, formerly Global Client President at Dentsu Aegis, helming the Microsoft account, will be based at the company’s New York City office, reporting directly to Media Storm CEO Christina Norman.

“Steve has a strong track-record in marrying creative thinking with data and deep consumer and media insights to drive significant results for brand marketers,” said Norman. “His expertise in blending the distinct practices of media planning and brand strategy will drive greater client results.”

“Media Storm has long been a go-to agency for entertainment brands—and has recently taken their cultural acumen and talent for data to the next level, creating successful media programs for marketers across the spectrum,” said Piluso. “I am excited to join Media Storm at this critical juncture, as the team continues to hone its skills, expand its capabilities, uncover new audiences, and meet a wide range of client demands.”

At Dentsu Aegis since 2015, Piluso served as the global owner for the holding company relationship with Microsoft, setting the business vision for account services and revenue growth. Prior to Dentsu Aegis, he was Head of Activation and Media, U.S. at Omnicom’s RAPP.

Earlier, he spent 3 years at Omnicom’s PHD in several key roles, including Executive Vice President, Managing Director of PHD’s Eastern Region, and Chief Strategy Officer. Piluso also spent over 9 years at GroupM’s flagship agency Mindshare, where, among other positions, he served as Managing Director, Mindshare Entertainment, leading content strategies and solutions for the branded entertainment unit.

Piluso is a graduate of Boston College with dual B.A. degrees in English and Philosophy.

ML Search Partners, a top executive search firm focused on the media and entertainment sectors, managed the Media Storm Executive Director and Head of Media and Integration search.

It’s the number one rule in horror films. Don’t split up, there is safety in numbers. Much of the digital media industry has gone along with that. We’ve been thinking that there is safety in numbers, that a machine is doing the work in digital that humans do in other media to provide brand safety. But bad things have been getting through and for many brands, it’s a real fear that their ad will show up before an extremist, very brand-unsafe video.

Media Storm’s CTO Charlie Fiordalis weighs in on the role of consulting companies in clients’ programmatic businesses:

With more than $1 billion in revenue and over 14,000 employees across 32 offices globally, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ digital arm, Digital Services, is encroaching on agency turf through mergers and acquisitions. Now, the practice is helping clients (it declined to share its client roster) set up trading desks on their own, as more and more brands are planning to bring programmatic in house for more transparency.

But one thing PwC Digital Services doesn’t have an interest in building is its own agency trading desk to run programmatic campaigns for clients.